In many building trades, contractors and workmen use paint spraying to more efficiently paint a room or wall as opposed to solely using a paint brush or roller. Paint spraying usually involves using devices such as motorized paint sprayers (e.g. TITAN 440 Airless Paint Sprayer) that work by pumping paint at a very high pressure (e.g. approximately 3000 psi or more or less than this number), through one or more hoses to an attached spray paint gun, whereby the pumped paint is sprayed from the nozzle of the attached spray paint gun onto the intended surface. Paint sprayers can speed up a project or job that requires several gallons of paint, and can often be applied twice as fast as using a paint brush or roller. Further, paint sprayers are particularly desirable for being able to apply a smooth finish of paint from the attached spray paint gun.
Paint sprayers usually are placed on a surface near a painter and plugged into a nearby outlet or other power source. The intake tubes from the paint sprayers are placed inside a paint pail or bucket that usually holds several gallons (e.g. 1-5 gallons) of paint, and the intake tubes from the paint sprayer pump the paint from the paint pail or bucket to the attached spray paint gun. This allows the painter to paint a larger area without the need to refill the bucket as often as if the painter only had access to a small amount of paint. Paint sprayers and the attached spray paint guns are frequently used with larger projects that involve painting over large areas, including but not limited to, the exterior or interior of houses, commercial buildings, garages, roofs, or any other location.
A number of issues exist for many professional painters and contractors that use paint sprayer machines and buckets or paint pails while painting. First, as the amount of material or paint in the bucket decreases to approximately half a gallon (without limitation), it becomes difficult for the paint sprayer to pump the paint into the paint gun. In order to remedy this problem, it is quite common to see professional painters and contractors use various nearby items to prop up the paint bucket so that the material that is left in the bucket tilts to the side of the bucket and the painters may position the intake tubes of the paint sprayer on that side where the material is located. Examples of common items that professional painters and contractors use to prop their paint buckets to one side include bricks, rolls of tape or duct tape, books, and even pine cones. These common place items are used to keep the paint bucket up on its side so that the painter can use that last bit of paint left in the bucket without having to waste it or refill the bucket as often. However, these items are in no way naturally configured to provide adequate support for a paint bucket or other type of container, and it is frequently a problem that the buckets when propped on such devices eventually tips over causing a mess and wasted material as well as potential damage to a connected paint sprayer.
Another issue with paint sprayers and the buckets used to supply paint to the paint sprayers is that once a specific amount of paint is removed from the bucket and the intake tubes from the paint sprayer are still located in the bucket, the bucket tends to tip over due to the decreased overall weight of the bucket versus the weight of the intake tubes. This can result in spilled or wasted paint, wasted time, and potentially damage to the paint sprayer machine if the machine begins to intake air instead of paint. Professional painters and contractors complain about how frequently they have to stop their work to refill their paint buckets and to readjust the position of their paint sprayers.
Also, there is no warning or alert system provided to the painter or other contractor that the amount of material in the bucket has decreased so significantly that the bucket needs to be tilted to one side, unless a fellow painter or co-worker is monitoring the bucket and alerts the painter. Thus, there is still a need for a device that automatically adjusts itself as paint or other material is removed from the bucket to allow for the longest time of continuous use and to alert the painter that they need to refill the bucket.